1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to testing methods in a mobile telecommunication system, and more particularly, to a method for automatically testing a base transceiver station (BTS).
2. Description of the Related Art
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,013 (""013 patent) entitled Enhanced Communication Network Testing and Control System, there is disclosed a conventional communication network testing method. In accordance with the ""013 patent, a central management system connected to a plurality of remote sites automatically monitors the network including all its constituent elements and regularly updates the status of each element. The central management system executes an automatic test on selected sites in the network without the need for operator intervention. In addition, provisions exist for manual operator commands to execute certain tests and controls.
As described above, conventional testing methods monitor each site using a central management system connected to a plurality of sites. Conventional testing methods, however, are sometimes difficult to apply to a mobile telecommunication system including complicated subsystems and a plurality of elements. Further, the conventional method can not test a plurality of systems simultaneously and cannot output the test results in accordance with the system classifications. This requires the user to spend an inordinate amount of time searching through the test results.
FIG. 1 illustrates the hierarchical structure of a typical mobile telecommunication system employing code division multiple access (CDMA) comprising a plurality of mobile stations (MS) (50, 51) base transceiver stations (BTS) (40, 41) base station controllers (BSC) (30, 31) and a mobile switching center (MSC) 20. Each BTS provides communication service to the mobile stations within a corresponding service coverage area and the MSC connects the BSCs that control the BTSs to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 10. The BTSs and BSCs are grouped with a particular BTS.
An operator controls base transceiver stations dispersed over a wide geographic range through a base station manager (BSM) (not shown). The BSM is connected to a plurality of BTSs (40, 41) and BSCs (30, 31) to perform system management and maintenance functions. An operator is able to determine the status of each BTS and BSC via the BSM and can test the function of any BTS connected to the BSM. The various functions of the BTSs and BSCs are described in FIG. 2 including some test items which can be performed via the BSM (see item 1). A base transceiver station (BTS) and a base station controller (BSC) each include a plurality of processors which are tested individually in accordance with the predefined test items. The BSC includes a call control processor (CCP), an alarm control processor (ACP), a selector interface processor (SIP), a selector and vocoder processor (SVP) and a common channel signaling processor (CSP). Test items associated with the BSC may be generally classified into initiation tests (category 1, FIG. 2) and system status output (category 2, FIG. 2).
The initiation test, category 1, further comprises a download test, category 1.1, and a re-starting test, category 1.2. The download test category includes a standby loading test, a CCP download test, a ACP download test, a SIP download test, a SVP download test and a CSP download test. The re-starting test includes a re-starting by a man machine command (MMC), a re-starting by hardware reset and loading history output.
The system status output, category 2, includes an alarm status-output test, an alarm message output restraint/release, restrained alarm history output, an audio alarm restraint/release, an alarm continuation/raising function, a fault list output, a fault message output restraint/release, restrained fault list output, a status message output restraint/release, restrained status history output, version number output and so on.
In accordance with conventional testing methods, inevitably some steps are redundant in executing the test item. For example, an operator inputs a command specific to a particular test item and an associated parameter range (e.g., BSCs 0 to 3, and SVPs 0 to 3. etc) with the test results being output to a BSM. The BSM analyzes the test results to determine whether the test is normally performed. When performing another test item, certain substeps from the previous test are unnecessarily repeated.
Consequently, for properly testing a BTS, an operator should input all the test item commands while referring to a manual. This process is time consuming and prevents the system from performing other system functions, such as communication service, during the trusting. As such, the tester monopolizes the system during the testing phase.
In addition, for each function test command, basic parameters need to be input each time. Since alarm and state messages are periodically reported from all the systems connected to a corresponding base station manager during testing, the operator should analyze each message from the history of the test results after identifying desired systems to see the results of testing of the desired systems.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for automating a test of a base transceiver station by automatically executing commands corresponding to the subtest categories for each selected test category.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for saving the initial system parameter values as default values and updating them as needed. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for classifying, saving and outputting the automated test results.
The above objects are achieved by a novel and improved method for automatically testing base transceiver stations (BTSs) in a mobile telecommunication system comprising the steps of: checking by a base station manager (BSM) whether input parameters for testing a BTS have been input; reading the input parameters; otherwise using default parameter values when the input parameters are not supplied; selecting commands for items to be tested in the BTS; and executing the selected commands using the input parameters or the default parameters.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically testing a base transceiver station (BTS) in a mobile telecommunication system comprising the steps of: confirming by a base station manager (BSM), which remotely manages a plurality of BTSs, whether an operator designated to test the BTS is registered or not; checking by the BSM whether parameter values for command of a test item of BTS have been input, saving the input parameter values as default parameters, reading default parameters when the parameters are not input by the operator, for test items of a BTS classified into a plurality of large items, middle items and small items, selecting some or all large items among the plurality of large items, executing the commands for the small test items included as part of the selected large items, saving the test results as a file after execution of the test and displaying the test results on a screen.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically testing a base transceiver station (BTS) in a mobile telecommunication system comprising the steps of: classifying by a base station manager (BSM) the test items of the BTS and the inner device of the BTS into a plurality of large items, a plurality of middle items and a plurality of small items, and automatically executing the commands for all small items included as part of a large or middle item category.